Verizon has released an update for the Motorola Droid X phone that adds some great new functionality. The update is, confusingly enough, called 2.3.340. But, despite the name, it’s not Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which was also in the news today. This is strictly a Verizon update – or so far as I can see. You can find it and download and installation instructions on Verizon’s Droid X update page.

Just a quick word of warning for those who don’t have a PDF reader installed – despite Verizon’s endorsement of Adobe Reader in that screenshot, I recommend using Foxit reader which is MUCH more secure and also free.

The new features and updates include:

The download and installation is pretty painless as long as you follow the instructions. You should be back up and running in under an hour and probably well under that.

I became eligible for a new phone from Verizon on November 10th. On Black Friday, November 26th, I finally made my decision. I had been thinking of holding out for Verizon to get a Windows Phone 7 device, but I just couldn’t take my Windows Mobile 6.1 phone any longer. Plus Dell had a great deal on the Motorola Droid X – $79.99. It could have been $49.99 if I had the primary line (my wife’s phone has that designation), or even $9.99 if I were moving to Verizon as a new customer. But, $79 is still one heck of a deal for a Droid X.

The first thing I worried about was that this phone would be just a bit TOO big. I always carry my phone in my front right pants pocket. It’s not. It’s perfectly sized.

The next thing was the learning curve from Windows Mobile 6.1 to Android. And that was surprisingly low. It took me a little while to figure out certain things, but that should be expected when moving to a new device. For instance turning on WiFi, deleting programs, and moving icons to the home screen were all not completely obvious. But they weren’t really hidden either.

The market was front and center on the home screen and made searching for apps simple. And once you find one it’s one-click to download and install it. Talk of Android apps is all over the place on on the internet, so there’s no problem hearing about new ones, both good and bad. I had a list I was interested in long before I even bought the phone. For instance, Tom wrote a great post on this site a while back about Camera 360, so that was one of the first I added. The apps you start with will depend on a lot of things. I have DirecTV, so I added their app for accessing and programing my DVR. My kids and I have a fantasy football team and Yahoo makes a really slick app for tracking your team.

Moving to Android has been really painless. If you have heard talk of Android being somewhat geeky then you have only heard part of the story. It can be as Geeky as you want, but version 2.2 can also be simple for any user, no matter what their level.